Despite a massive uproar over his statement demanding that every Hindu woman in the country must produce at least four babies to protect their religion, BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj remains defiant. “Raat gayee, baat gayee (The night is over, let the matter end),” he said on Thursday.

“If people are so hurt by my statement, then a strict law should be brought against a family that has more than two or three children,” he said, adding, “Hang me if I have said anything wrong.”

At an event in Meerut on Tuesday, the Lok Sabha MP Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, said, “The time has come when a Hindu woman must produce at least four children in order to protect the Hindu religion.” Maharaj said each Hindu family should then “give one child to the Army and another to us”.
“Mai Modiji ka hoon, Modiji mere hain. Mai party ka sipaahi hun (I belong to Modi and Modi belongs to me. I am a soldier of the party),” the BJP MP said.

Maharaj’s party, the BJP, later said that it was his personal opinion. “We strongly urge our workers to focus on promoting the good work done by the government and refrain from getting involved in unnecessary statements,” a BJP spokesperson said. “This is his personal opinion. I don’t want to comment on this,” BJP president Amit Shah told reporters in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.

The BJP’s official response came after a sharp attack by the Congress which said the electoral slogan of the ruling party seemed to be “ab ki baar, bacche char (this time four children)”. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Modi had spoken on most “minute, micro issues” but has kept quiet on Sakshi Maharaj’s remarks. “The prime minister is silent, the home minister is silent, the finance minister is silent. If they are silent, what does it mean,” he asked.

The Hindi film fraternity also expressed shock over Sakshi Maharaj’s remarks. Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt tweeted: “Sakshi Maharaj wants all Hindu women to have at least four children. The good news, he hasn’t specified the number of husbands.”

Composer Vishal Dadlani, a strong supporter of the Aam Aadmi Party, posted: “I finally get what BJP means by development. New developments in stupidity, every day! In an overloaded nation, this.” Comedian Vir Das saw the lighter side of the matter. “Dear Sakshi Maharaj, as long as every Hindu woman has even one kid who laughs at your speech, I think we will be ok,” he said.

Last month, Sakshi Maharaj had stirred another controversy when he called Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse a nationalist and a patriot, leading to a massive protest by the opposition parties in Parliament. He later apologised for the remark in Lok Sabha.